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In 1980, at the age of twenty-eight, Fields was elected to the U.S. House on the coattails of President Ronald Reagan's electoral victory. He narrowly defeated 8th District incumbent Bob Eckhardt, a seven-term Democrat, by only 4,900 votes to become the first Republican to represent what is now the 8th in 83 years. After the 1980 census, most of the 8th's more Democratic areas were cut out, and Fields was reelected seven more times without serious difficulty.